


Immersion, Immolation

by Mrinalinee



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crack, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-03
Updated: 2012-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-06 20:00:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1110933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mrinalinee/pseuds/Mrinalinee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Still, the why-don't-you-kill-me-and-take-over-Camelot-yourself guilt trip was taking it a little far.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Immersion, Immolation

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for fuckyeahmerlinfemslash exchange on tumblr. Early S4 AU.

Morgause was a very patient patient for the first few months of their travel, but by the last legs, she had taken to muttering day and night. Morgana loved her sister more than she had loved anyone in her life - in fact she had never loved anyone else, except perhaps her father - the one who wasn’t Uther Pendragon, the tyrant - and of course she made allowances for Morgause’s injury, but after several weeks of sleepless nights, she began to tire of Morgause’s constant grumbling.

Morgause had made her life worth living, and Morgana could have been perhaps a bit more considerate, but, still, the “Why don’t you just kill me and take over Camelot yourself” guilt trip was taking it a bit far.

All things being equal, though, she didn’t like to have her family arguments in public, unless they involved battling Uther Pendragon to the death; so it angered her greatly when a ghostly woman popped up and said, “Stop!”

“Nimueh,” gasped Morgause. “I thought you were dead.”

“I am dead,” said Nimueh. “And soon you will be too, if you don’t listen to me. This is not the way.”

“It is the only way,” cried Morgause, and Morgana didn’t like to find fault with anything that Morgause did, but the toss of the head was a little dramatic.

“If by only, you mean stupidest. Self-sacrifice is the first thing those idiots in Camelot default to. It’s practically their battle strategy; they all prostrate themselves before the enemy saying, ‘Take me first,” until whoever they’re fighting puts down their weapons out of sheer awkwardness.”

“I did notice that,” said Morgause, sitting up.

\--

The next day, when Morgana woke up for breakfast, Nimueh and Morgause were already discussing battle strategy.

“What’s for breakfast?” said Morgana.

“Uther would never have let you eat breakfast,” said Morgause, and Morgana caught Nimueh nodding approvingly.

“That’s true!” she exclaimed. “Breakfasts in Camelot were meager at best, and they were my favorite meal. All of Uther’s energies were devoted to lunch and dinner.”

\--  
The first plan, carefully thought through, was to magically grease all the stairs in Camelot. Several servants were killed, which would have been acceptable collateral damage, except that Uther decided to stay on the ground floor all day and never once visited the dungeon to gloat at magic-users before killing them.

When Arthur finally woke up, and upon trying to go out for training, fell down the stairs, Merlin sprang into action.

“Morgana,” he cried. “You will not get away with this,” and he turned the grease into great puddles of water.

So that was a disappointment, but when Merlin turned red with rage and shouted Morgana’s name, Nimueh turned to her and said, leering, “He’s right to miss you. I can’t imagine why that bastard Uther Pendragon allowed you to leave.”

“You too,” said Morgana, leering back.

\--

It took, of course, several weeks to recover from the disappointment of the first attempt, during which time all the leering amounted to nothing. Morgana was a lady, and as such, expected to be courted, but Nimueh apparently was the kind who leered without following through, to Morgause’s almost audible eye-rolling.

At first she had said, “How dare you threaten my sister’s honor!” leaping to Morgana’s defense with her blade, but blades had no effect on shades, and she gave up trying after that.

Which was a point that Morgana had been contemplating anyway. How could there be follow through at all, with a ghost? Perhaps in an earlier time, Nimueh had been more of a go-getter, but now was reduced to not keeping her leering promises.

“How the mighty have fallen,” she said with a sigh.

“Not as far as that bastard, Uther Pendragon, will fall,” said Nimueh.

“He will fall off a cliff,” said Morgana, nodding. “Metaphorically. Or maybe not. We could throw him into the sea.”

“He will burn up the sea with the heat of his awfulness,” said Morgause.

\--

The second plan was to create a non-Nimueh shade, to infiltrate the castle as a servant and kill Uther Pendragon, that bastard. Because the servant had to be believable, they sent it walking across the land, which for some reason took significantly less than the year it had taken to travel here, and Morgana had taken into consideration her grumbling sister in the cart.

But it turned out that a servant could not just enchant its way into serving Uther Pendragon (that bastard) but instead had to work its way up the servant hierarchy (something Morgana could not have been reasonably expected to know; she was a lady) and they settled in for the long haul.

After two days, Morgause and Morgana were tired of waiting. “I have waited forever,” said Nimueh imperturbably. 

“He’ll die before we can kill him!” said Morgana. “And that would be worse than if he lived forever.” And they agreed that allowing that bastard Uther Pendragon to die of natural causes would be unconscionable, even if it happened next week.

\--

“Oh for heaven’s sake,” said Morgana during the third month. “Have you got something in your eye?”

“I was leering at you,” said Nimueh, sounding distraught that her leering was not good enough for Morgana.

“I prefer to be wooed,” said Morgana. “Perhaps some flowers...”

Nimueh kissed her, and Morgana didn’t have time to wonder how she suddenly had substance.

\--

The third plan was to enchant the castle itself, which although a combination of the previous two plans and fairly unoriginal, had a sort of poetic element that they all liked.

“The very stones of Camelot reject his rule,” said Nimueh, spelling it out for them.

But perhaps long distance spelling didn’t work as well, because Merlin had to barely look sideways at the castle and it settled down and stopped grumbling.

“We should really get him on our side,” mused Nimueh. “Maybe if we threatened to kill some small animals.”

“Merlin hates small animals,” said Morgana. “Especially if they’re magical.”

\--

“We shall kill that bastard Uther Pendragon,” said Nimueh, working on her pillow talk. “We will burn his bones to make our bread.”

“Oh! Yes!” cried Morgana.

“This is not such a large island,” said Morgause with her back to them. She had covered her ears with her hands. “My sister and I are very close, but I would prefer not to be _so_ close.”

“We shall cut up his flesh and feed it to the bunnies that I threatened to kill to seduce Merlin to our side,” Nimueh went on, lost in passion.

\--

“Have we considered an _army_ of the undead?” said Morgause, resorting to their fallback.


End file.
